Interlake-Eastern RHA strongly encourages anyone who is travelling through the province for the holidays to be aware of the location of the nearest hospital and how to access emergency care. Services in some emergency departments may be temporarily unavailable if a doctor is not available onsite.

“Emergency department schedules indicating doctor availability are now posted online and via a toll-free number because communities have told us loud and clear that they need this information,” said Ron Van Denakker, Interlake-Eastern RHA’s CEO. “We have worked with our doctors and hospital emergency department teams to make these available publicly.”

People can call toll-free 1-866-267-5818 to hear about the availability of a doctor in an emergency department. These schedules are also posted online at www.ierha.ca under “Care in your hospital” and “Emergency department schedules”.

If people come to an ED without a doctor onsite, they are advised to please come inside and speak with a nurse who can assess their health status and identify care options.

When an emergency occurs, always call 911 or the local 10 digit number for emergencies. Paramedics will provide care and transport to the required care providers.

“We continue to recruit doctors to our region to deliver emergency department care and we are anticipating more doctors coming to our region in 2017,” Van Denakker said.